B.A., University of Washington, Seattle, 1972; J.D., University of Washington, 1979; M.B.A.(Finance), University of Washington, 1979; Master of Librarianship, University of Washington, 1995.

Professor Simons received concurrently awarded J.D. and M.B.A degrees from the University of Washington in 1979. Following admission to the Bar of the State of Washington in 1979, Professor Simons pursued a career in banking, specializing in lending to the oil and gas industry and in workouts of large loans to troubled enterprises. During his banking career, he worked on several of the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcies in the country, including serving on the Board of Directors of an oil and gas production company following reorganization in bankruptcy.

Professor Simons earned a Master of Librarianship, with Certificate in Law Librarianship, from the University of Washington in 1995. Prior to joining the Law Center faculty in 2004, Professor Simons was a law librarian and manager at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Downtown Campus Library, serving the Chicago-Kent College of Law and the Stuart Graduate School of Business, as Director of Public Services. At Chicago-Kent College of Law he was an Adjunct Professor from 1996 to 2003, teaching specialized Advanced Legal Research and Writing and Legal Drafting classes in Bankruptcy and Business Law. He also co-taught Introduction to the American Legal System to an LLM class of attorneys from Beijing. Professor Simons currently teaches Accounting and Finance for Lawyers and Advanced Legal Research. Professor Simons writes and presents about issues in legal research, teaching, and law librarianship and is the author of Texas Legal Research and a co-author of Federal Legal Research.